Here’s a playbill credit one doesn’t see often: Pie consultant. But audiences will at “Waitress,” a touring Broadway musical opening Tuesday, March 20, at the downtown Orlando Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. (Tickets start at $34.25 at DrPhillipsCenter.org or 844-513-2014.) Stacy Donnelly...

This year’s Fab Fringe — the biggest fundraiser of the year for the Orlando Fringe Festival — will be headlined by a homegrown show. “Josephine,” the critically acclaimed musical biopic of legendary chanteuse Josephine Baker, will be presented in its full 80-minute length for the first time in...

The Central Florida Composers Forum on Tuesday, March 6, will present “Celebrating Women Who Compose,” designed to highlight past and present contributions by female artists to the craft of composition. Curated by forum members Sharon Omens and Bethany Borden, the program consists of uplifting...

I can’t see the twinkle in Broadway legend Joel Grey’s eyes, but I can hear it in his voice. “Young girls very often follow behind me… looking for my tail,” he says during a phone call from his New York home. Grey’s best-known roles are full of devilish charm: He was the original Wizard of Oz in...

The blind date depicted at the start of “Boy Gets Girl,” onstage at Theatre UCF, would be funny if it weren’t so painful. The meandering small talk. The awkward pauses. The jokes that fall flat. It’s the human mating ritual in all its cringe-worthy glory. But Rebecca Gilman’s play, which debuted...

This weekend, Winter Park will raise the curtain on a musical, a play, classical-music concerts and numerous museum exhibits — par for the course in Orlando’s northern neighbor. But a new initiative wants to make sure everyone knows it. A web page now lists the city’s arts happenings in one place,...

If someone asked “Who is more of a singer? Judy Garland or Mickey Rooney?” odds are Garland would be the response. That’s not to disparage Rooney, an all-around entertainer — but Garland’s music hit the heart harder. This is evident in “Babes in Hollywood: The Music of Garland and Rooney,” the...

It was 30 years ago that destruction rained down on the little Scottish town of Lockerbie. A terrorist’s bomb exploded on Pan Am Flight 103, high overhead, and as the shattered plane’s debris fell to the earth, 259 people on board and 11 residents of Lockerbie lost their lives. Although those circumstances...

Sounds silly but it’s true: The third longest-running show in Broadway history is based on a children’s cartoon. Disney’s “The Lion King” debuted in November 1997 and has been belting out the “Circle of Life” ever since. With more than 8,000 performances under its belt, or mane, it has run longer...

Latest concert news

Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas” will be brought to life — at least musically — with a live concert set to the film. The concert will be held at 8 p.m. Oct. 27 — just in time for Halloween. Even if you feel that the cult classic is more of a Christmas movie, listening to “This is Halloween”...

The newly formed supergroup August Greene will be taking stage at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. The group features Grammy, Oscar, Golden Globe and Emmy Award–winning hip hop artist Common; Houston-born, Grammy Award–winning pianist and composer Robert Glasper; and world-renowned...

Donny and Marie Osmond are bringing a taste of their early television specials and recordings along with a nostalgic look back on their storied career to the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. The brother-and-sister duo are well-known for their variety show, Donny & Marie, which aired...

Latest movie releases

The Lara Croft reboot “Tomb Raider” isn’t half bad for an hour. Then there’s another hour. That hour is quite bad. It’s no fun watching your action heroine get shoved, punched and kicked to the sidelines of her own movie, while the menfolk take over and take turns overacting before expiring. Alicia...

“Based on a true story” is the bread and butter of the faith-based film genre. As more and more of these films get made, thanks to companies like Pure Flix, and Christian moviegoing audiences add to their popularity, more and more true stories about the miracles of religious faith are required....

Unless it’s complicated by something like human feeling, and a recognition of the human beings on both sides of any bloody ideological conflict, true-life heroism has a tendency to look a little synthetic on screen. It’s what sells, of course. And it’s an easy emotional sale if The Other in the...

Some things are universal about being a teenager: The budding sexuality and sense of identity, the dramatic emotions, the profound need for acceptance and confusing inklings of first love. Countless movies (and books and songs and TV shows) plumb the agony and elation of teen romance, but "Love,...

Attraction news

The Redhead has assumed her new role at Pirates of the Caribbean, the long-standing attraction at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom theme park. The change in the attraction’s storyline – as well as the positioning of several animatronic figures – was announced by Disney last summer and put into...

Walt Disney World has announced the dates — and already is selling tickets for — the 2018 editions of Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, two extra-ticket, after-hours events at Magic Kingdom theme park. The Not-So-Scary dates are Aug. 17, 24, 28 and 31;...

A new Walt Disney World event is getting glowing previews. The resort is adding an after-hours, after-dark dance party — dubbed Disney H20 Glow Nights — this summer at Typhoon Lagoon water park. Beginning on June 21, lighting effects will illuminate the water park, which will feature “Toy Story”...

Arts and theater events

The death of a Cirque du Soleil performer early Sunday in Tampa underscores the inherent risks in the entertainment company’s dazzling performance style. The element of danger is part of what makes a Cirque du Soleil show so thrilling. But it still is a shock when something goes so horribly wrong....

As thousands enjoyed the hustle and bustle of the Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival on Sunday afternoon, a smaller — but just as rewarded — group of arts fans sought refuge a few blocks away at a slightly calmer event. I say “slightly calmer” because on the bill inside Rollins College’s Tiedtke...

Sometimes even bugs and butterflies think Ronnie Hughes’ glass-sculpted flowers are real. “We get a lot of confused insects at my booth,” said Hughes, of North Carolina. “They’ll camp out on some of my pieces, and I know I’m frustrating them because there’s no scent to my flowers.” Amid about 200...